Reagan Administration Bars Visas to People with HIV

The administration of President Ronald Reagan on this day adopted a formal policy barring visas to people with the HIV infection. The policy was one of several similar policies that reflected both an indifference to the HIV/AIDS crisis and hostility to homosexuality.

The policy was finally rescinded by the administration of President Barack Obama on January 5, 2010, when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) removed HIV from the list of diseases that barred people from obtaining visas to enter the U.S.

Don’t miss: David France, How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS (1916)